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Crack Comics Vol 1 21
Supporting Characters: * Wendy Foster * Dr. Foster Antagonists: * Kalten Winch * ** 2 hench ** pilot * * Crow's illicit info customers, 2 or more Locations: * ** Radio Station ABC, studio B ** Shane Tower, 54th floor ** Club Continental Items: * Condor's Black Ray Pistol Vehicles: * light airplane | Writer2_1 = Al McWilliams | Penciler2_1 = Al McWilliams | Inker2_1 = Al McWilliams | StoryTitle2 = Spitfire: "Scouting Out the Coastal Artiller" | Synopsis2 = The RAF has been failing to scout the locations of the German long-range coastal artillery batteries, due to very heavy Luftwaffe fighter patrols. Tex "Spitfire" Adams volunteers to snoop around in a captured German Me-110; Chuck rides along to man the rear gun. They find the well-hidden big guns, but are themselves spotted as a phony, and three Me-109 pursuit planes are sent after them. Tex heads for England at top speed, but their top speed is higher; they shoot down the stolen fighter/bomber over the English Channel. Tex and Chuck survive the crash landing, and the shot-up Messerschmitt floats for a while, but they are wounded. An English crash boat crew finds them, retrieves their sketched map of the artillery positions, and gets them to a hospital. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Eagle Squadron C.O. * Chuck Bolton Antagonists: * Locations: * Eagle Squadron airfield, * * Northern coast of , between and Vehicles: * s * * 3 s * English "crash boat" | Writer3_1 = | Penciler3_1 = Lou Fine | Inker3_1 = Lou Fine | StoryTitle3 = Hack O'Hara: "Driving a Taxi in the Big Town" | Synopsis3 = | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Officer McCarthy Antagonists: * 3 thugs Other Characters: * diamond merchant * O'Hara's boss Locations: * (big city with waterfront) ** 1007 Fort Washington Avenue Items: * false teeth w/ concealed diamonds Vehicles: * O'Hara's hack | Writer4_1 = George Brenner | Penciler4_1 = George Brenner | Inker4_1 = George Brenner | StoryTitle4 = The Clock: "Meet Butch" | Synopsis4 = One night, the Clock traces "Cokey" Coen's drug smuggling gang to their waterfront hideout, and wades into them with his bare fists, knocking three of them right out. Coen is half stunned but rallies himself up, finds his cowardly henchman "Mouse", and lays a deadly trap. Coen draws the Clock in close, with some lies about how he wants to confess before he dies, then shoots him in the abdomen, at very close range. Mouse steps in and also shoots the Clock, a lot of times. Already arguing about how to split the credit for the kill, Cokey and Mouse leave hastily, without checking the body. Moments later the Clock lurches up and staggers away, disoriented and half dead. He blunders into a deserted shack, which is not so deserted after all. There's a squatter. Adolescent tough-girl newspaper-vendor orphan "Butch" Buchanan is inside, changing clothes. Clock collapses. She puts him to bed and spends the next few months nursing him back to health. Eventually O'Brien recovers, and finds out about her life story. She has now decided that whatever kind of gangster The Clock is, she wants to be his moll, and she argues and manipulates and wheedles him into going along with this. Actually he volunteers to adopt her but she scorns that deal. Also she has valuable information for him, so they should team up. These past few months, Butch has been snooping around, finding out about Cokey Coen, and she's worked out where he's likely to be, and leads him there. With strict instructions to Butch to stay outside, the Clock barges into the joint, and beats the daylights out of Trig, Mouse, Cokey, and all their pals. Butch of course sneaks into the place, and is helpful at first, knocking out some half-stunned felons with her shoe, but she becomes a distraction when one creep tries to kill her with a knife. Clock knocks him out also. Leaving these losers for the police, Clock and Butch leave quickly and walk to O'Brien's place, arguing the whole time. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Butch Buchanan Antagonists: * Cokey Coen * The Mouse * Trig * 3 more thugs Locations: * ** Waterfront ** O'Brien's Park Avenue home | StoryTitle5 = Jane Arden // Lena Pry | Synopsis5 = (newspaper strip reprints) | Writer5_1 = Monte Barrett | Penciler5_1 = Russell E. Ross | Inker5_1 = Russell E. Ross | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Jane Arden (across top halves of pages) * Lena Pry (across bottom halves of pages) | Writer6_1 = Vernon Henkel | Penciler6_1 = Vernon Henkel | Inker6_1 = Vernon Henkel | StoryTitle6 = Don Q: "Olga Petroff" | Synopsis6 = At night, in Vastipole Square in the capital of Vastavia, Don Q is ambushed with machinegun fire, while en route to a secret meeting. He catches one bullet in his arm, but escapes, and reaches the underground meeting place. One man patches his bullet wound and he's introduced to Petroff, leader of the Vastavian Republican Army, and Olga his daughter. He's there to prevent a bloody civil war by negotiating between the rebels and the dictatorial government. But the rebels are themselves divided; one faction wants to throw in with the Axis, but Petroff's faction recognizes them as an even greater enemy. Don Q's priority here is to keep Vastavia in the war, against the Dictator Countries. The splinter group's leader makes his move, yanking out a pistol and shooting down old Petroff. Don Q punches him twice without knocking him down; he and Olga leave with haste. The pro-Axis rebels pursue him on foot. Once they're gone, old Petroff, not quite dead, lurches to his feet, and staggers away. Meanwhile outside, Little Pierre is waiting with a car. Petroff finds him, and asks for help getting to a doctor, but just then the Secret Police arrive on the scene. There is a fight, with Little Pierre knocking down several secret cops, protesting his national neutrality the whole time, and amid all this, old Petroff escapes. Pierre is eventually subdued and taken to the Leader's headquarters. Don Q and Olga are already there ahead of him. The Leader himself takes charge of the room, and some negotiating takes place. Don Q tells the Leader about a (made-up) midnight meeting of the VRA's leaders, at the arsenal by the harbor, that very night. He then leaves, shakes the secret police following him, and returns to the rebel hideout. He tells the pro-Axis faction of rebels a similar story, about a meeting that the Dictator is supposedly holding, same arsenal, same midnight. That night the rebels get to the arsenal first, and set up an ambush, then before long the Dictator marches some troops to the arsenal. But the wary Leader detects the set-up. He calls in a warplane, which drops a bomb at the arsenal but misses. Don Q pulls out his pistol and kills the pilot with one shot; the plane crashes in the harbor. Seeing this, the rebels charge out of the arsenal, into a shoot-out with the Leader's forces, and win it. The next day, old Petroff is in charge of Vastavia, and announces to an assembly of citizens that he owes his success entirely to Don Q. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Little Pierre Antagonists: * ** his spies, police, and soldiers * Other Characters: * Vastavian Republican Army ** Petroff ** Olga Petroff ** bearded pro-Axis rebel ** many more Locations: * ** Vastipole *** Vastipole Square *** Leader's Headquarters *** Vastipole Arsenal Vehicles: * Vastavian dive-bomber | Writer7_1 = Fred Guardineer | Penciler7_1 = Fred Guardineer | Inker7_1 = Fred Guardineer | StoryTitle7 = Tor the Magic Master: "The Bombing" | Synopsis7 = Jim Slade visits London to photograph the air raids, then amid some fresh rubble he changes identities. Tor the Magic Master neutralizes some bombs, changing one into a banquet for some air-raid shelter refugees, and animating another bomb to fly him up and at, and thru, several German aircraft. After rescuing one RAF fighter plane, and chasing away the rest of the air raiders, Tor turns this bomb into a very large live rabbit. Tor then changes back into Jim Slade and snaps some more pictures, then flies back to the U.S., and hands them off to his editor. | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Slade's editor Antagonists: * Locations: * Vehicles: * many Messerschmitt fighters and fighter-bombers * some Dornier bombers * 1 Supermarine Spitfire * civilian commercial clipper plane | Writer8_1 = Art Pinajian | Penciler8_1 = Art Pinajian | Inker8_1 = Art Pinajian | StoryTitle8 = Madam Fatal: "The Basket" | Synopsis8 = A set of Defense Plans gets stolen, then lost, by a spy ring. The plans are in a basket in a vacant lot, in which Scrappy Nelson and Tubby White are building their small, crude, "Sure Fire Detective Agency" office, and they show the basket to their old friend Richard Stanton. They all recognize the basket as belonging to their other friend, Pop Hudson, but Stanton has also noticed something else about the basket, and quietly leaves. He goes home, changes identities, and returns to the clubhouse as Madam Fatal, volunteers to walk the basket back to Pop Hudson, and is gone again. This time Tubby and Scrappy follow him, into the bad neighborhood where Pop lives. There Madam Fatal is braced by two gun-brandishing spies; he and the basket are marched in to meet the spy boss, who turns out to be Pop Hudson. But the stolen plans that should be in the false bottom of the basket are missing! As things start to look bad for Madam Fatal, Scrappy and Tubby show up with Officer Ryan, and shots are exchanged. Roxi the top spy goes down, but Pop and his two henchmen run upstairs to the roof, and then onward to some more roofs, and escape, for the moment. But the astoundingly athletic Madam Fatal takes a roundabout rooftop route and heads them off. There's another fight, in which the henchmen get beat up but not knocked out. Madam punches Pop off the edge of a roof; Pop returns the favor with an accurate gunshot, as he falls from sight. Ryan and the kids get Madam to a hospital in a taxicab. The emergency surgery is successful, and afterward the surgeon discreetly conceals Stanton's true gender from the boy detectives. He passes them the stolen defense plans, which they plan to take credit for returning, and they boast of their agency's first successful case. | Appearing8 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Sure Fire Detective Agency ** Scrappy Nelson ** Tubby White Antagonists: * Roxi, spy boss ** Pop Hudson, spy underboss *** Mike, hench spy *** other hench spy Other Characters: * Officer Ryan Locations: * Items: * stolen defense plans | StoryTitle9 = Ned Brant | Synopsis9 = (newspaper strip reprints) | Writer9_1 = Bob Zuppke | Penciler9_1 = R.W. Depew | Inker9_1 = R.W. Depew | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Ned Brant | Writer10_1 = Paul Gustavson | Penciler10_1 = Paul Gustavson | Inker10_1 = Paul Gustavson | StoryTitle10 = Alias the Spider: "The Crow Escapes" | Synopsis10 = The Crow kills four guards and escapes from the Death House; the Spider finds out about it and gets after him in the Black Widow. Out on a twisty mountain road, at night, police are chasing the Crow, in his stolen prison car, and a lot of shots are exchanged. The cop car crashes thru a guard rail and off a steep embankment, just before the Black Widow roars onto the scene. After a short pursuit and some sharp maneuvers, the Spider leaps onto the Crow's car, and slaps the window, startling the Crow, and sending this car, too, thru the guard rail and over the side. But the Crow escapes the plunging car, unseen by Tom or Chuck, and quickly scrambles back up the escarpment, gets behind Chuck, clubs him unconscious, and steals the Black Widow! Three weeks go by, during which Hallaway maps out a series of police reports of mysterious crimes and sightings of the Black Widow. He also supercharges his specially-built back-up car. After he works out the likely location of the Crow's hide-out, the Spider and Chuck go hunting. They spot, then trail, the Black Widow to an old mill. Chuck stands lookout while the Spider sneaks inside and busts the Crow. A local motorcycle cop, looking for the Spider AND the Crow, is bamboozled by Chuck into riding away empty handed. | Appearing10 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Chuck Antagonists: * Other Characters: * two cops * bike cop Locations: * ** Tom Hallaway's house * Route 107A Items: * Hallaway's customized "Spider Seal" arrows Vehicles: * * police car * stolen prison car * Spider's souped-up back-up car | Notes = * Black Condor: ** Secret legislation goes on in the Quality Universe version of the U.S. government. ** Karle Kurt wears a monocle. ** Wendy Foster gets kidnapped, and gets shot, in this story. ** This episode is Jaspar Crow's ninth clash with the Black Condor. At the end of it, the evil old scoundrel is plummeting towards seemingly-certain death. Next issue, without explanation, Sen. Crow is still at large and still a U.S. Senator. * The Clock: ** First issue for the Clock's second sidekick, Butch Buchanan. ** Last issue for the Clock's full-face mask. ** The Clock gets shot at least three times, and it could be seven times. ** "Days turn into months" in this story, as the Clock recuperates from his wounds. ** Butch's dialog in this story makes Brian O'Brien very uncomfortable. ** Butch breaks the Fourth Wall and makes an aside, directly to the reader, noting how easy it is to manipulate men, when you "turn on the weeps". * Don Q ** Don Q gets the first and only bullet wound of his short career, in this story. ** Little Pierre is described in this story as Don Q's faithful valet. Next issue he is missing completely. In Crack Comics #23, he is working in Lisbon, Portugal as a charter pilot, and in Crack Comics #24 he is back to being a valet. ** The never-named Leader Of Vastavia looks very much like , and the not-named leader of the Dictator Countries looks just like Adolf Hitler. ** The Vastavian flag, flying over the arsenal, is yellow with a large black five-pointed star in the center. The flag in the Leader's palace is the same, plus a black silhouette hammer across the star. * First issue for Hack O'Hara. * Madam Fatal gets a bullet wound in this story. * Alias The Spider: ** The Spider's bulletproof, silent, super-charged, wall-climbing car, the Black Widow, is housed in a secret garage under Tom Hallaway's suburban mansion. It enters and leaves this secret garage via a large trap door set in Hallaway's driveway. ** At this story's end, the Crow is in custody of the Spider, who has already passed up one chance to turn him over to the law. * Spitfire: ** Tex Adams smokes a pipe. ** Tex gets one or more bullet wounds in this story. * Tor ** The Magic Master is famous. British civilians and German aviators all recognize Tor. ** Tor's animated bomb, in addition to flying, also could talk. After the air battle, Tor turned that bomb into a live rabbit, which did not speak. (This was an odd recurring feature in Tor's magical style; last issue he conjured up some talking seagulls, and in Crack Comics #24 he used a talking giant turtle against some soldiers.) * Also appearing in this issue of Crack Comics were: ** "Biggest Thrill" (text story, featuring Eric Vale), by Larry Spain ** , by Bernard Dibble ** Rube Goldberg's Side Show, by Rube Goldberg ** Slap Happy Pappy, by Jack Cole ** Snappy, art by Arthur Beeman | Trivia = * Tor, the Spider, and Hack O'Hara are the only three (out of eight) action heroes in this comic book who don't either get shot or have a sidekick get shot. | Recommended = | Links = * Crack Comics #21 Feb 1942, almost entire issue, (missing top half of page 5 of the Madam Fatal story). }}